Becoming a Hero
by Uniagon
Summary: When you live in a world of heroes, crimes are as common as breathing. When Emma Stone decides to investigate some suspicious men, she soon discovers a dream she never knew. To become a hero too. Set in America, all OC, original plot, T for mild language/violence


Emma was tired of people getting kidnapped.

As she sat in the school's 'see something, say something' assembly for the third time in two years, the same words of comfort that nobody needs anymore are putting her to sleep. More kids from rich,powerful hero families went missing yesterday, and the heroes were going to take care of it. Same as always. Tugging slightly on her purple shoulder length hair, she tunes in to the verbatim spiel for something to do. She recognizes this part of the speech and feels burst of joy.

"Due to the disappearance of several students in the area, the district is letting school out early." The principal recites the words from the district slideshow titled 'ransom kidnapping'. The show was eerily familiar, and not the only pre-made slide The Warfield Middle School had. Everyone's face is extra pale in the bright light of math teacher Mr. Folum's projector quirk. The principal sighs and continues. "School will end after fourth period. Feel free to stay for school lunch, which will be served for those unable to eat anywhere else, according to state laws."

Any excuse to leave school early is accepted, and today was no exception. The room's atmosphere became light as the students were informed of their sudden break. Most were relieved they had the longer weekend to finish Mrs. Cattail's essay assignment that was supposed to be due tomorrow. Emma sighs and the bell rings, signaling the end to second period, which was taken up by the assembly. She walks down the gym bleachers and out of the room with everyone else, thoughts wondering about where to go for real food after leaving school. She makes it to English class as she settles on some McDonald's, a stop on her short walk between school and home. She sits at her desk and isn't paying attention until Ryan Issacs snaps sharply in her face.

"Emmaaaa. Helloooo?" Ryan chants, hands now waving in front of her eyes. Emma blinks in surprise and he seems content to continue. "We were asking what you thought about doing." Emma lowers her brow questioningly. Beside Ryan sits his best friend since elementary, who happened to be named Issac Ryans (Emma is pretty sure their names played a large role in them becoming friends). "He means what you wanna be when we leave school." Issac clarifies. Emma is surprised and the question knocks her off guard. She never put any thought into her future at all. Every time she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up was brushed off. She has no clue what she wants to do when she leaves school. She feels her breath hitching in her throat and fear in her stomach. Issac eyes flash and Emma is painfully reminded that he has a basic empathy quirk that feels people's emotions. His eyes widen in concern and he quickly says "It's okay if you don't wanna answer." Emma takes a sharp breath in and exhales with a quiet murmur. "I don't know. I don't know what I want to be." _Why does this affect me so much? _she wonders, extremely confused and struggling with controlling the sudden panic. The boys must think the same thing, because they seem less (but still very) concerned and more confused too.

"I always wanted to be a sports player." Ryan offers in a voice that's a bit too loud and cheerful, even for him. He turns to Issac with a painted grin."I feel like my quirk is more like a therapist thing." Issac supports, much more genuine. Emma nods her head to them as a thanks just as their teacher enters. The chatty room stills as Mrs. Cattail sits at her desk and glares around the room with wide, scrutinizing feline eyes. "Study hall, be quiet." she finally hisses, and looks down to her computer with a quiver in her whiskers, not doubt grading their timed essays from last week still. The room makes a distinctly schoolish noise of shuffling papers as the students get busy. Nobody notices Emma's glazed look except from Issac, who silently continues his math homework.

Everyone leaves as the fourth period bell rings, many chatting after two deathly silent study hall periods in English. Emma is one of the last people in the room, slowly packing up her biology notes that she could hardly focus on with dazed fog in her brain. Mrs. Cattail's ear turns to Emma as she shuffles away. "Miss Stone, if you would kindly come over here" the teacher purrs in a tone Emma doesn't recognize, eyes still on her computer. She turns to the calico woman with a measly "Yes, ma'am." and redirects her shuffles to the desk. Mrs. Cattail looks up, staring deeply at Emma's face for a moment before saying "What's your favorite class." It sounded so much like a statement, not a question anywhere in the tone of her purr. It left Emma even more stunned, which was starting to make her head hurt. "I don't really have one?" she replied, more asking in tone then the actual question. Mrs. Cattail nods with an amused gleam in her deep green eyes. "I figured as much.* she states blankly. "You're not very picky, indecisive at your best. Any more fence sitting and you'll become part of it. It's okay that you don't know what job you want yet, but high school is just around the corner and you're life won't sit on the fence with you." The cat woman lightens her gaze without a change in expression, somehow. "You are obviously already deep in thought, I just wanted to give you something to chew on." Mrs. Cattail gives Emma a Cheshire grin, and the gaze is light enough to float on air. Emma is so confused she might just go into a coma at this point. "I already have an idea of what you'll choose, but that will wait until Monday, when we speak again. Be careful, Miss Stone." And just like that the teacher goes beck to her stern self, and Emma is dismissed.

Emma is so confused on her walk home it's a miracle she can even walk. She almost doesn't stop by McDonald's because of her puzzled trance, stopping to turn around after walking a little past it. She orders a plain cheeseburger and a small fry before starting back on her walk home. Feeling much better with her head clearing, she quickly walks and scarfs down her fries (admit it, they're impossible to eat cold). She keeps replaying the conversations about her future in her mind. Mrs. Cattail already has an idea? If it's that obvious to the teacher that barely knows her, why can't she think of anything she wants to be? Her mind debunks options left and right. Teaching kids would suck. She respects teachers for their sacrifice, but as a 13 year old Emma knows how annoying kids are. Emma isn't naturally talented in anything she has ever done, average in every way. Emma likes many things but excels at nothing. And her quirk ... would come in handy with what was about to happen.

Emma was halfway home and finally eating her burger when she turned the corner to walk past the factory. The factory was long abandoned, and Emma had never seen it used in her life. Each day more of its windows mysteriously break and graffiti appears on the walls by seemingly magic. It almost felt like the natural rotting of the building, like moulding bread and browning fruit. Emma had never seen anybody in the factory, but heard kids boast of parties and sleepovers spent in the place at night. That's why it was strange when two men drove into it's overgrown parking lot. The red car they exited was plateless, and they each carried briefcases at their sides as they stepped in through a door with a graffiti artist's colorful peice of colorful words. Emma stopped mid chew as she looked at the door closing behind them. _That's weird. Maybe the city sent some guys to check the factory for safety? Maybe they're gonna tear it down. _Emma shrugs and keeps walking before her brain argues. _But then why a licenceless car? And briefcases? That's not a construction consultant. _Curiosity beats her mind before Emma decides to self compromise. A quick peek on the men would put her mind at ease….

Shoving the rest of the burger quickly in her mouth, Emma looks around. There was nobody on the street and the road was car free. Perfect for Emma's quirk. Out of Sight, the name Emma gave her quirk when she was little and first discovered it, was just a teleportation quirk with a couple twists. If nobody sees her, she can look at a spot and take a step forward to teleport there. All the rules of her quirk and the laws against public usage stop her from using it too much, but it's super useful to have a quirk that nobody ever sees you use when it's illegal to use them. She had a solid amount of self training under her belt, which comes in handy. Like right now. Emma eventually swallows the rest of her burger and focuses on a broken window on the factory's second floor. She can see the ceiling through the window hole, and zones in on it before taking a step forward. The lurching sensation of teleporting in her stomach makes her regret eating her meal so fast. She lands with a thud on a cold concrete floor, prone with her body laying flat on the gray solid as she catches her breath. The room is empty, and a disgusting smell lessens as Emma scrambles to stand, informing her it radiates from the floor in one regretful moment of horror.

As her thoughts catch up to her suddenly misplaced body, her knee jerk actions leave Emma smacking her hand to her head from her own stupidity before she remembers that other people are in the building. How could she be stupid enough to trespass on abandoned property with two suspicious strangers? Panic sets in as she realizes the men could have heard her noises. _Stupid stupid stupid…. _her brain informs the rest of her. Tense and frozen she stands, heart thudding in her throat and she tries to listen for them over the sound of her own pulse. After what she felt was a lifetime of waiting, Emma decides that they're still downstairs and oblivious, or better yet gone. Releasing a shaky breath she had held for who knows how long, Emma tiptoes to the office room's door. The door, thankfully, slides open noiselessly. The hallway is large and doors line both sides. Each door has a name, marking them as offices of their long forgotten owners. Creeping down the empty hallway is nerve-racking enough to allow Emma to sympathize with horror movie victims. At the end of the hall she is rewarded with an elevator door _(Absolutely turned off, not that I'd risk it with the men anyway) _and a door to some stairs. The door is a push door with a mental bar for a handle, and it makes a solid thunk when its heavy weight is pushed to let Emma through. After a pause to make sure no men were coming, she softly closes the door and sneaks down the concrete stairs. They lead to a door marked as the first floor, and continue to spiral downwards on the left side, likely to a basement storage. Emma is weighing her options when she hears a voice.

"-wants us to give him the notes. Doesn't trust us to post them ourselves." a gruff voice gripes. The sound isn't far from the door. Emma freezes for a second before sprinting down to the basement in a burst of adrenaline. She just turns a corner, silently padding down the stairs while trying not to trip, when she hears the door open. A deep laugh follows Emma and infects her with terror. "He just doesn't trust you. Remember the Christmas party?" a different voice replies in a teasing tone. The sound of their heavy steps are **getting closer **as the walk slowly **downstairs. **Emma quickly locks her gaze to the bottom of the stairs and steps down. The flip of her guts as she appears in front of a door is quickly dethroned by relief. It takes all her will to quietly open it, just enough to slip in. She closes the door behind her and looks around the room. That's when she notices the people sitting in ropes around the room staring at her. She blinks at them, their gags hanging, pulled down on their chins, their young eyes widen in emotions from fear to surprise as they blink back at her. None of them move. The door opens. They all turn to the movement. A rope slides around Emma's torso, wrapping her arms to her sides. A pain spreads from the back of her head. She...

...wakes up sweating on the cold floor, covered in rope and a gag stuffed painfully in her mouth, a splitting headache pounding her skull as she registers voices. "Hey there. Hey. Wake up." Emma snaps her eyes open, alert with terror as she gazes up at the face in front of her. She is laying uncomfortably on her left side, her arm numb from her own weight pinning it to the ground. Her eyes focus in on a man leaning his head to look her in the eye. The man smiles and looks relieved. "Glad you're okay. Boss doesn't like us killing innocent people, especially children." The voice is the second voice she heard from the stairs, the same light and teasing tone as before. Emma jolts and desperately struggles to escape the layers of rope tied around her entire body from her neck down to her shins in a grotesque imitation of a cocoon. _More like a_ _trapped fly. _The smile doesn't leave the man's face as he seems to read Emma's mind. "That's more like it. Exactly what I expect from a nosey hero-wannabe teenager that sneaks into our base. Are you scared? This is what you hero kids train for, right? People like us. Villains." The man backs away and looks at a bigger man that stood behind him, and he addresses Emma next. "Do you have a quirk?" the familiar gruff voice asks Emma. She shakes her head no, not in reply to the question but to everything in general. No, she doesn't want to be here. No, she's not a hero-wannabe. It takes her a second to realize she said she was quirkless, and another to realize if there wasn't a gag on her mouth she would have said the truth. The men glance at each other. "There's our answer, Cat Tongue."

"She could be lying"

Emma feels like puking.

"What do you mean, I thought…"

"It only works for verbal replies, Not"

"Oh, yeah"

They look back at her.

"Seems scared enough, and she hasn't even done anything."

"I'm not gonna try our luck. Maybe her quirk needs her voice. If she hasn't done anything yet, we need to get going. Waiting for her took three hours-"

The words backhand Emma, almost physically tangible as a strike to the face. Emma is going to die**, **by the men or by her **mom. **Her worried mother, wondering where her daughter went, contacting the police…. Searching for help, for rescue, for **heroes**…

"-and it put us behind schedule. We both need to go to keep things on track. Leave her with the hostages."

Emma is carried to the next room by Not, the room with the hostages in rope just like her's. The room that she entered three hours ago. _It's six o'clock _she thinks numbly. _Why are the heroes taking so long? _The underground room is small, and she counts five other hostages, around the same age as Emma. Their gags are replaced, except for a mouthless boy, and they all look at her with the same looks as before. Not gently sets Emma on the floor and, grinning, produces a rope from his glowing palms before adding it on her multitude of previous ones. "For safety. Sit tight" he whispers and leaves after Cat Tongue with a wink and a wave to the six children. _At least I know where they got the ropes from now _she cracks in her mind. A minute after they leave **Knot** (the name clicks in Emma's head in the wake of his quirk) walks back in, loudly announcing they forgot their briefcases. He leaves with them in hand, and after a click of the door's lock the silence continues. _He was checking to see if I had a quirk. _Emma realizes_. Seeing if we were escaping_. She looks to the other hostages in the room. They all look around, and after a while an orange haired girl on the right side of the room shifts. Suddenly her left leg reaches out, extending across the small room, and she tugs down Emma's gag with foot. Surprised at the sudden use of the quirk, she chokes out a "Thank you." from her sore but free mouth. The girl seems to smile from under her gag before moving on to a blond boy to Emma's left. After everyone can speak, minus mouthless boy, Emma notices everyone is staring at her expectantly. "H-hey…" her voice cracks, and she is now painfully aware how dehydrated she is. "I'm Emma?" she tries, gazing intensely at the also concrete basement ground.

The orange haired girl speaks first. "Hey Emma! I'm Amara." she says cheerfully Everyone else shifts in their binds. "I'm Lukas." one of the identical blond boys beams, also stunningly happy. The other blond boy glares at her and hisses. "You could have rescued us if you didn't freeze up." Emma is taken aback by the unhindered fury in his voice. Her face burns and her vision gets cloudy before a blonde girl briskly says "That's Jacob. Sorry about him. I'm Erica." Emma glaces at her thankfully, and her gaze shifts to the mouthless boy before Amara says "That's Argus. He signs with his hands, but he doesn't have a mouth." Emma nods at that and continues to look at Argus. "I know sign language." she blurts out, and the boy shoots her an appraising look. He blinks rapidly and Amara giggles. "He said 'Cool' in Morse'" she explains. Emma's face gets a little warm, and she changes the subject to something she had thought of during the talk.

"You were all kidnapped yesterday, weren't you? You go to Garrison Middle School?" Nods around the room. No wonder. These kids all resemble some famous heroes, and are obviously their family by their school. Garrison is a private hero prep school, and it is heavily guarded. "How did those two do it?" she wonders, quieter and mostly to herself. Erica gives a slight shake of her head. "They captured my brothers and I after school." she answers, much to Jacob's furious chagrin. He yells back "I would have kicked their ass if I wasn't so thirty from quirk training with you bums! They ambushed us, Dammit!" Jacob twists in the ropes, sounding hoarse and letting Emma know he's been thirsty for a while. "Do you want me to go get you some water?" she asks out of kindness reflex, and everyone stops to stare at her. "Emma, you're tied up." Lukas says curiously. She realizes what she said and fumbles for a second. Of course she can't get water. She starts to apologize when an idea starts to form.

"Guys, listen. I don't use my quirk much, so I don't know if this will work-" she explains, and everyone is staring at her with less confusion and more determination. "-I need to stand up though." she finishes, quiet. Amara immediately shoots her leg out, letting it grow across the small room. Using her leg, she helps Emma stand up. Suddenly too anxious to explain, Emma looks down and mutters "I can't use my quirk if I'm being watched." Everyone seems to understand and close their eyes, but she still feels someone watching. Louder and feeding off the rooms determined atmosphere, she repeats herself. "I'm not joking. I can't unless nobody looks. It's part of my quirk." She feels her quirk become usable as whoever it was obeys, and sighs a "Thank you." before focusing on a spot on the other side of the room. This time is different though, as she splits her attention to leaving the ropes behind. She steps forward, and her stomach jolts like going downhill on a roller coaster, much stronger than any time before, and a little painful. With a jump and yelp she feels the ropes _(thank goodness it's just the ropes) _come off her body and cheers. Curious, the five others open their eyes and look thoroughly surprised at the Heep of rope she left behind. "Wow." Amara says, happy shock plastered on her face. "You're the best hostage ever! You're, like, a Harry Houdini!" Emma turns to her, red faced from the showering of praise and grinning wide. Jacob is less excited. "Well? Get us out, Witch Girl!" he calls loudly in his sandpaper voice, and everyone silently agrees that he's going to be the last one getting untied.

Obviously Knot is extremely good at tying rope (unsurprisingly), as undoing Amara's rope alone takes at least 15 solid minutes. The two then split and untie Argus and Erica. As Emma bends down to Argus' trapping, she starts talking to herself under her breath. "The heroes are taking forever. Something must be wrong if we've been here for 24 hours without rescue. Maybe they're information was wrong. Or there was a large scale villain attack. Or-" she feels her throat clog as she mumbles her fears to herself. She doesn't notice the silence of the room or how easily her words reached everyone in the cramped room. Tight lips and tense shoulders tug away at ropes, and soon everyone is free. As Emma faces the training heroes she finally sees the results of her words. They look ready to fight an army each, grim smiles and fierce eyes. The looks are so different from anything she has ever known, and her chest suddenly is suddenly beating with her heart as it slams angrily. Her face and feelings suddenly mirror theirs, and they all look at each other and silently agree.

They're not waiting for heroes anymore.


End file.
